Porting a Mortgage in Canada: What Happens to Your Mortgage When You Move

You found the next house. The problem is the mortgage on the one you are in now. It has two and a half years left to run, and your lender wants a penalty to end it early.

Porting a mortgage is the way around that. You take the mortgage you already have, with the remaining term and conditions attached to it, and move it onto the new property. No break, no penalty. That is the theory, anyway. Here is how it works in practice, what it costs, and the places it falls apart.

What Porting a Mortgage in Canada Actually Means

A port is a transfer, not a new mortgage. Same lender, same remaining term, same conditions, new address. The lender discharges the charge on the old property and registers it against the new one.

The catch is in the words "same lender." Porting only exists inside the relationship you already have. Move to a different lender for the next house and that is a break, not a port, penalty included. So porting is a good deal when your current mortgage is a good deal, and a trap when it is not.

If the new home costs more and you need a bigger mortgage, most lenders will let you add the extra. The new money comes at whatever is available on the day, and the lender combines it with your existing money into one blended rate for the rest of the term. The federal Financial Consumer Agency of Canada lists porting as one of the main ways to avoid a prepayment penalty, alongside the blend-and-extend option.

You Still Have to Qualify Again

This is the part that surprises people, and the part that sinks files. Porting is not automatic. New property, new approval. The lender pulls credit again, asks for current income documents, counts your debts, and orders an appraisal on the home you are buying. The stress test applies, because you are qualifying for a mortgage on a property you do not own yet.

Three years of perfect payments is helpful to have on file. It is not a substitute for qualifying. What decides it is what has changed since you signed:

• You left a salaried job and went self-employed, so your income gets read a different way now.
• You took parental leave, or your hours dropped.
• You financed a truck, or the credit line from the renovation is sitting at its limit.
• You are buying a more expensive home, so the mortgage is bigger and the ratios are tighter.

Any of those can turn a port down, even with the lender you have paid on time for years. Worth knowing before you write an offer, not after your conditions are waived. Our guide on what not to do before closing on a house covers the changes that quietly break an approval.

What Porting Costs, and the Window That Decides It

The port itself is cheap. Most lenders charge a small administration fee, commonly in the $100 to $300 range as of 2026. Next to a prepayment penalty that can run into thousands, that is the whole point of doing it.

You still pay the normal costs of buying. Porting saves the penalty, not the purchase.

The number that actually decides the deal is the timing window. Every lender sets a limit on how far apart the two closings can be, commonly 30 to 120 days, and a few stretch further. Miss it and the port dies.

Same-day closing. The cleanest version. You sell and buy on the same date, the mortgage moves across, nothing is charged.

Closings on different days. Here is the wrinkle nobody warns you about. Many lenders charge the full penalty when the old mortgage is discharged, then refund it once the port completes inside the window. The money comes off your sale proceeds first and comes back afterwards. If you were counting on every dollar of that equity for the down payment, ask your lender how they handle it before you set your dates.

Porting to a smaller mortgage. If you are downsizing and only need $400,000 of a $500,000 mortgage, the $100,000 you are not carrying over counts as a prepayment, and a partial penalty can apply to it. How big depends on the way your contract calculates it. Our breakdown of how mortgage penalties are calculated in Canada covers the two methods and why one produces much bigger numbers than people expect.

When Porting a Mortgage Does Not Work

Portability is a term in your mortgage contract, not a right. Plenty of mortgages cannot port at all, and plenty of people find that out at the worst possible moment. The usual blockers:

• The product is not portable. Some variable products cannot port, or cannot port into a fixed rate. Open, very short-term, improvement and specialty products are often excluded.
• There is almost no term left. Inside the last few months most lenders will not process a port. You are close enough to renewal to plan the next mortgage properly instead.
• You want a different lender. Porting keeps you where you are, and staying put has a cost of its own if the mortgage no longer fits.
• You do not requalify. The most common of the five.
• Your mortgage is not with an A-lender. Alternative and private mortgages are generally not portable. They are written against a specific property, for a short term, with an exit already planned.

If the port is off the table you have not run out of options, you have changed the question. Breaking and paying the penalty is one path, and sometimes the cheaper one once you see the new mortgage. And if your file has changed since you last qualified, the range is wider than most people think. A-lenders average two years of declared income for a self-employed borrower or use a business-for-self program. Alternative lenders can often work from roughly twelve months of business bank statements without the most recent Notice of Assessment, go below a 600 credit score depending on how the rest of the file reads, and stretch debt ratios toward 50/50 rather than the 39/44 an A-lender works to. Private lending is equity-based and normally starts at 20% to 25% down or more with fees on top. The trade is always cost, so both come with an exit plan attached.

When the Dates Do Not Line Up: Bridge Financing

The other half of moving is cash flow. You take possession of the new place on the 15th, your buyer takes the old place on the 30th, and your down payment is sitting inside a house you have not been paid for yet.

Bridge financing covers those fifteen days. It is a short-term loan secured against the equity in the home you are selling, paid off out of the sale proceeds. Through a bank or credit union it usually looks like this:

• A firm, unconditional sale is required. Conditions have to be waived.
• Only offered when the mortgage on the new purchase is with the same lender. Nobody bridges a purchase they are not financing.
• Interest-only, charged by the day, so a two-week bridge costs a fraction of a three-month one.
• Priced a few percentage points above prime, plus a set-up fee that is often a few hundred dollars.
• Terms usually run up to about 90 days, and there is often a minimum loan amount.
• The lender will check you can carry both properties for a short stretch.

If your home is listed but not yet sold, a bank will normally say no. That is where alternative and private lenders come in. Several will bridge against a home that is only listed or conditionally sold, which is useful when the right house appears before yours has moved. It costs more: a lender fee, usually a percentage of the loan, a higher rate, and a lower loan-to-value.

Port, Break, or Start Fresh

Three questions settle it, in this order.

What is the actual penalty? Not the estimate. The real figure, in writing, from your lender. On a fixed mortgage the calculation can produce a number many times larger than three months of interest.

Do you still qualify where you are? If not, the decision is made for you, and the work moves to finding the lender that does fit.

Does the timing fit their window? Closings four months apart against a 90-day window gets solved at the offer stage, not the lawyer stage.

Porting is not automatically the win. It is the win when the penalty is large and the lender still suits you. When the penalty is modest and another lender fits your file better, breaking can leave you ahead. Same arithmetic as switching lenders at renewal without the stress test or any refinance or switch decision: the cost of moving against the value of where you land.

How Gold Lion Mortgages Can Help

Most of this comes down to reading your mortgage contract properly and getting the real numbers early. A twenty-minute job at the start, an expensive scramble at the end.

When someone comes to us mid-move, we pull the existing terms, confirm whether the product is portable, get the exact penalty figure, and check the timing window against the dates being discussed. Then we run the port against the alternative, so the decision comes down to total cost rather than the assumption that keeping the old mortgage must be cheaper. If a bridge is needed, we arrange it alongside the purchase. Our mortgage renewal page covers the same ground for people staying put.

Surinderpal Singh has been placing files across Alberta and the rest of Canada since 2023, including plenty a single bank could not solve. We work with the big banks, credit unions, monolines, alternative and private lenders, so the recommendation comes from the whole market.

Call (587) 740-0048 or apply online at goldlionmortgages.com/apply. It costs nothing to find out where you stand.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I port my mortgage to a new home in Canada?

Usually, if your mortgage is with an A-lender and the product allows it. Porting moves your existing mortgage, with its remaining term and conditions, onto the new property, so you do not break the contract and pay a penalty. It only works with the lender you already have. Portability is a term in your contract, so check yours.

Do I have to requalify to port my mortgage?

Yes. A new property means a new approval, so the lender reviews your income, credit, debts and an appraisal of the new home, and the stress test applies. A perfect payment history does not replace qualifying. What has changed since you signed is what decides the file.

How long do I have between selling and buying to port a mortgage?

Most lenders set a window between the two closings, commonly 30 to 120 days, and some allow longer. If the closings are not on the same day, many lenders charge the penalty at discharge and refund it once the port completes, so you may need that cash for a short time.

How much does it cost to port a mortgage?

Porting is normally a small administration fee, often $100 to $300 as of 2026, far less than a prepayment penalty. You still pay the usual costs of the new purchase: legal fees, an appraisal, registration. If you borrow less than your current balance, a partial penalty can apply to the difference.

What happens if my mortgage cannot be ported?

You break the mortgage, pay the prepayment penalty, and arrange new financing. First get the exact penalty figure from your lender in writing and compare it against what another lender offers on the new purchase. Breaking sometimes costs less overall, and B-lender or private options exist when an A-lender approval is not there.

Published: August 10, 2026. Mortgage guidelines, lender programs, and qualifying requirements change. Contact Gold Lion Mortgages to confirm current requirements for your file.

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